Shortly after touching down on Melbourne soil I was lucky enough to stumble across an exhibition by Jason aka ‘Blinker Fluid’. It was a full blown visual stimulation station. The scale of the works and his knack for capturing the motion of people and perspective blew my socks off a bit.

When asked if he had any tips for perspective drawings, he energetically told me to go and stare at the inside of a teaspoon for a while, which I thought was hilariously great advice.

Turns out he's done graphic work for loads of my favourite brands like Carpet Company and Nocta, and we recently caught up to talk about his journey as an artist, have a doodle and capture some wisdom for other people on the creative journey.

How long have you been going for it with the art?
Growing up I was never really allowed to play games or any of that. It was mostly just sketching. I'd just draw like need for speed cars. I still love drawing cars.
I’d say taking art seriously for 6 years though. I started off just doing gigging posters for my friends' music events, some graphic t’s n shit.

You do a lot of great work on some funky materials. Is there a reason?
You got to warm up on cardboard man, there's nothing better than doing that, you don't care if it gets ruined. That's why in my last show I used exclusively outdoor blinds. Something about it. It’s like whatever, if I mess it up it ain’t that bad. That’s when you do the best stuff.

That's clever. You’ve got a super distinctive style.
Thank you. I really appreciate that. A lot of it can be attributed to being really stubborn, like I don't use much reference or whatever. Imagine you were just in prison with a million pieces of paper & a ball point pen. You’d end up making your own steeze.
I would just draw a pair of Air Max 90s every day, I might do one nice pair a month. Now I can do it without a reference. It's like skating, tre flips. Time and patience.

And the duck, is that like a signature?
I did a drawing of a car back in 2018 and the duck just came in and said “vroom” and I kept doing it. I resonate with the duck, walking around, chilling, looking funny. He just kind of comes in and comments on my drawings. He’s often just looking up real cheeky.
The way I kind of see it is if you're a dedicated visual artist, after a certain point you like get gifted a mascot. A symbolic character, it’s different to style, it's more mythical. David Chow with the whale. Keith Harding with the baby.

You produce a lot of projects and work with some big brands. Do you ever struggle to manage your time? Any tips?
Yep of course. Between family, work, relationships, friends, making sure I don't smell, cleaning my house, also don't forget trying to be inspired and staying healthy. All these things.
Writing stuff down the night before changed my life. I was so late to it, like I didn’t realize writing shit down was a way to get your thoughts on paper and if you forget it, it's still there. It's amazing.

‘Writing stuff down the night before changed my life’

 

How’s it pricing your work, what's that process like?
Trial and error. It's about making yourself happy and the people buying your work happy in equal measure. The more you do art the more you can quantify it. Time, materials, complexity of image, turnaround. You have to factor all that in.
You could go dumb ham and say this is my masterpiece. I want a zillion dollars for it, but then it doesn't sell and you see a banana taped to a wall that’s worth millions and feel bummed.

How do you find balancing the cash money chase and the fun chase?
If I can get enough between this and work to pay rent, food, some beers for the homies and maybe a piece of clothing every now and then. I'm happy. The simpler the better.

I like that.
If you can manage to combine making a living for yourself with creativity while simultaneously making a positive impact in your community that is the most you can ever ask for.

You've done work for very rad brands. How does most of that come about?
Instagram. Getting zucked man. Getting absolutely zucked. Loads of nice people that live inside my phone. I've never hit anyone up for work.

Zucked. How do you find the whole social media side of art?
Some of it liquifies my brains and makes it fall to the ground. I don’t like the whole trends thing or being reliant on virality and luck. But in terms of sharing something you’ve worked on and getting feedback, it’s amazing.
Also if those trends inspire more people to create and try new things that’s positive, it outweighs the negative. But as soon as you feel social media is affecting you negatively, turn the phone off.

Do you ever hit creative blocks? Any wisdom on pushing through?
For sure. I think when you get lost you need to get back to why you started in the first place. For me that's doing silly drawings in my book that no one will see.

Also I don't condone slacking off but drawing at work, if you’re doing something like a service job or something, it's like real doodling. Most of the drawings I'm most happy with I’ve done at work and I've done without caring. I'd almost throw them away and then look at them and keep it.

Once you completely disregard the side of your brain that’s trying to tell you if something looks good or not. You just do it. If it’s bad it’s bad, if it’s good that’s great.

Sometimes I’ll get sad as well, everyone experiences it. Then it's hard to be creative and I have to do some self soothing.

What's some good self soothing?
Headphones and walking. Chuck on a soul mix. Walk to a nice bench, surround yourself with people. I’ll go pub drawing if I’m feeling like that.

Some of the best connections I've made are just being that dude that's drawing a duck at the pub and people approach you. That's a real human connection. It gets a bit like the ‘do a kickflip’ thing on a skateboard.

‘Some of the best connections I’ve made are just being that dude that’s drawing a duck at the pub’

That's beautiful. Thanks dude!